


My Friends Actually Call Me Liv

by TheSacredMonster



Category: Marvel, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Awkward Romance, Bioshock infinite - Freeform, Brief mentioning of the Lutece twins, Crossover, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Girlfriends - Freeform, LGBT+, Mad Science, Office Romance, Old Flames, POV Second Person, Poly, Science Girlfriends, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Tension, ex-lovers, gal pals, x Reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-07-27 05:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20040493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSacredMonster/pseuds/TheSacredMonster
Summary: You looked back at the trail of dirt beside your shoes as you started to realize that you had a thing for Dr. Octavius.Perhaps, you've fallen for the doctor.And you've fallen hard.(Olivia Octavius x Reader)





	1. Dr. Octavius

You've just landed a job at Alchemax. How you got here, only God knows, but it took a lot of all-nighters, painkillers, and a disturbing amount of coffee. You were still at the bottom of the food chain, but working for a multi-million-dollar company could give you a head start on saving up for your own lab some day. For now, you just had to deal with files and handing them to the right departments. It wasn't exactly what you were studying for your whole college life, but you were slowly getting to your dream, even if it meant putting what your mind could potentially do on hold.

It wasn't too much trouble getting used to the first few days, especially since the company looked out for its employees pretty well to make up for the infamous, shady underground work. The cafeteria had its own dietitian and glorious coffee machines, which were specifically built to be suited for the needs of caffeine-craving scientists. There was even a gym on the 2nd floor, equipped with all sorts of odd machinery that you've never seen in an average studio. Everyone was encouraged to keep themselves in physical shape, as they were, mentally. You heard along the grapevine that the idea was strongly proposed by the head scientist, Dr. Olivia Octavius.

You've seen her educational films in your lectures. There was just something about that genius scientist who had such a wild mane of hair accompanied by a crooked smile, who always wore alternatively striking, colourful scarves and dresses underneath that lab coat, which had its sleeves always rolled up in every episode, considering how odd it was, having a woman who encouraged scientific research shown violating basic safety protocols, that made you interested in her. From what you knew, she seemed devoted to her work and was somewhat awkward around other people, telling from her fixed grin and stiff hand gestures when shown "discussing" with a fellow scientist around Alchemax. 

It was pretty exciting that the woman in those films was currently working in the same building as you. You've always hoped to bump into her someday as you rise up the ranks. But that was an impossible dream. There were hundreds of different geniuses within the workplace who could take one look at your personal work and call it child's play. It seemed so when you were sitting alone on a table at the cafeteria one Wednesday, scribbling a few notes beside a graphic organizer with a bagel in hand. A woman carrying her tray of lunch, an apple and some weird purple shake, passed by your table, looked at your work before letting out a scoff. She continued walking towards her table that was occupied by men and women typing away on their laptops, and a particular woman, slumped on the table, glaring at her coffee with groggy eyes. You saw your future self in her.

You continued working throughout that day with your pride a little shattered. 

* * *

As you finish getting ready for the day, you realized that there was still enough time to head to work on your own instead of using your old motorbike. That rusty piece of work had been with you since college. You've been working on a blueprint to change its energy source, a system that could make it run on grease. Everyone loves the smell of fries, right? 

Your apartment was somewhat near the woods where the facility stood, so it wouldn't hurt to get your system pumping with an early morning jog. You neatly folded your lab coat, tucking it into your bag before heading out. You didn't want to go to work with dirt all over yourself, considering you were still making first impressions. And you'd look weird with your lab coat billowing behind you. Putting on your earphones as you locked the door to your apartment, you head to the elevator. Pressing the button to the ground floor, you looked at the CCTV camera by the corner of the ceiling before casting your gaze at the flyers on the wall. There was an ad of Spiderman's cereal. 

** _"Crunchy 'Spider-Webs' with exciting marshmallow shapes!" _ **

You let out a small smile as you remembered collecting all 5 trading cards in exchange for a Spiderman cereal bowl. It beat having to use paper plates and throwing out a large bag filled with only a hundred of them throughout your dorm life. 

The tall pale trees swayed gently in greeting as you jogged into the woods. A gust of air dried the sweat that started to form by your brow as you quickened the pace of your jog. You swiped back the strands of hair covering your face and huff as you jogged faster, feeling the rocky ground hurting your feet. You thought about telling your adviser that Alchemax should really consider constructing at least a decent pathway to the facility. But maybe it wouldn't matter, considering that everyone else was financially comfortable enough to be able to afford their own high-end vehicles. It was already pretty shady that your workplace was located in the middle of the woods as you finally see a glimpse of the pristine walls amongst the crowded branches and tall bushes.

_ "There could be a universe where I'm wearing red!" _

Wait, what? 

You looked around, making sure you actually heard someone, and that these woods weren't haunted despite how logical your mind is supposed to be, not having to believe in such trivial supernatural crap. Seeing a familiar dark mane with streaks of purple amidst the greenery made your pulse quicken despite your exercise. It had to be _her_. It had to be Dr. Octavius. You've heard that voice a hundred times in class. You stopped, taking out one of your earphones, and looked behind you. And there she was. 

Olivia Octavius in the flesh, biking her way to work. Apparently, she didn't notice you jogging ahead of her as it seemed that she was talking to a phone attached behind the basket of her bike. She was about 10 meters behind you. 

"Or wearing leather pants!" She heartily chuckled before you saw the front wheel of her bike run into a large rock, making her swivel. 

You stumbled towards her, yelling, "Look out!" as she struggled to press the stop icon on her phone, unaware that she was dangerously biking out of control and heading for a large thorny bush. You were luckily fast enough to have grabbed a hold onto one of her bike's handlebars. It took an effort to pull it back, digging your heels until you both skidded to a stop. She finally got to end the recording before realizing what you did. Her strikingly green eyes seemed to have noticed you for the very first time.

"Oh!" She planted her feet onto the ground and pocketed her phone. "I was handling it pretty well," she said as she adjusted her glasses, "but thanks!" You glanced at her canine teeth as she smiled at you. "I'm, uh, Dr. Olivia Octavius!" She pulled out her hand out of her pocket for you to shake. Just as you expected, her lab coat's sleeves were rolled up to her elbows. She was taller than she appeared in film. It felt odd not seeing her in 2 dimensions. As you told her your name, you were about to reach out and shake her hand back, but you realized that it had been tightly clamped onto her own on the bike's handlebar. "Pretty tight grip you got there," she smirked as you felt your cheeks burn before letting go to properly shake the waiting hand. 

"You come here often?" The gush of wind made her hair look bigger as you struggled not to look at the striking scarf embroidered with different cats drifting along.

"A-Actually, I," you licked your lips anxiously, definitely not blushing harder when you noticed her quickly glance at your mouth as you did, "work in the same facility as you." 

She grinned. "No wonder you looked familiar! You didn't have your lab coat on." Your brain teetered. You wanted to ask how she knew of you, how, out of all the hustling hundreds of scientists and fast-paced work around Alchemax, she had the time to notice your presence. But she continued on, "Well, welcome to the Fisk family, Rookie."

You smiled and nodded before resuming your jog until you heard her call out to you. "Why don't I give you ride? It's something I could at least do for you after you saved me from that bush." She pushed her bike forward, reaching out to you with inhumane speed and pulling you towards her. You gulped, steadying yourself on her shoulders as you put your feet on the metal beside the back wheel. You noticed how soft and puffy the strands of hair covering her shoulders felt underneath your fingers. 

"Be sure to hold on tight!" She beamed as you nearly fell over when she started pedaling. You feverishly clutched onto her, wrapping your arms tightly around her torso. You felt her breath hitch as you do. Something about her back didn't feel normal at all as you pressed your cheek onto her. It felt harder than flesh. You assumed that it was just all muscle from exercise. Her hair started to cover your face as she biked faster.

"I can't see a thing!" You yelped helplessly. 

She cackled back in reply, biking even faster, much to your anxiety. You felt your heart beat faster. You've always felt an interest for this woman, and here you were, clutching onto her surprisingly lithe figure for dear life, burrowing your face into her wild hair while tightly shutting your eyes in fear. You can stay like this forever, even if it meant biking in the woods for eternity. Her hair smelled fruity, earthy, and - you didn't want to admit it - but was that a hint of... _weed?_

You heard her scoff. And you opened your eyes.

You were at the facility already. 

"Oh! Sorry!" You struggled to remove yourself from her bike. Suddenly, you felt yourself losing balance and falling as soon as your foot had hit the soil. "Shi-" 

You felt her hand firmly grab onto your forearm. You looked at her hand and slowly up to her eyes. Her hair had completely blocked out the sun from your vision and you felt it cast a large shadow over your slanted figure. You stared at each other for a while before you cleared your throat, standing up straight and dusting yourself off. You noticed that her grip was still on you and you raised a brow at her. "Oops," she pulled back her hand, chuckling awkwardly, and drew her attention to the things in her basket before shaking her head as she got out of her seat. You reached out to your bag and pulled out your lab coat, checking for any creases before putting it on as you both walked towards the entrance of the facility, her bike beside her. 

"Won't that make the tiles dirty?" You asked as the automatic glass doors glided open. 

"Don't worry, they have bigger issues to worry about." You felt her gaze as you stared at the trail of dirt left by her bike's wheels. You almost felt like a lab rat underneath her surveying eyes. She looked at the name tag pinned to your coat and murmured your full name, as if trying out your name with her tongue for the first time. 

_ You wouldn't mind having that tongue trying you out, too.  _

Catching yourself at the thought of her tongue, leading to the image of her canine teeth, you felt yourself blush. "It was nice meeting you, Rookie." You heard her say, making you snap out of your inappropriate thoughts. 

"W-why don't we have lunch together sometime? Maybe later?" You sputter, immediately scolding your brain for being so stupidly bold.

"Oh, I don't eat at the cafeteria," she waved her hand dismissively, a dark look crossed her face before disappearing in a millisecond as she set her eyes elsewhere. "I prefer having my own food in my office." You felt your heart sink until she looked back and said with a smile, "But you're welcome anytime to drop by and see what I'm working on." 

"Really?" You stopped walking. 

She looked down for a moment and you feared that she was reconsidering the offer, but the feeling instantly vanished when she turned back at you and winked, her smile turning into a wolfish grin, before nearly hitting someone with her bike. She apologized profusely before quickening her pace. You heard the scientists, who were looking at you both chatting, snickering. You stared at them accusingly as they covered their laughter. 

You looked back at the trail of dirt beside your shoes as you started to realize that you had a thing for Dr. Octavius.

Perhaps, you've fallen for the doctor. 

And you've fallen _hard. _


	2. Another Day, Another Lunch Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting there.

You never did have lunch together. 

But ever since that day you rode with Dr. Octavius, you made sure to wake up extra early, thinking about the possibilities that you'd meet her again on that secluded pathway. You started tinkering with your motorcycle now that you've finished your blueprints. It was a slow side-project that really didn't need any rushing, and besides, you still needed to hatch a deal with either that McDonald's place near your apartment, or maybe, bargain with the cafeteria staff that you can take all the used up grease off their hands. You could get free fuel and they wouldn't have to deal with throwing it out. Well, that could only go with the McDonald's since the people back at the facility probably use biofuel for their own projects. 

There was this tiny sliver of hope at the back of your mind that wanted to work on your project slower, so maybe when you get to be friends with Dr. Octavius, you wouldn't have to jog to the facility anymore, or use your future, improved motorbike that much. Then you'd get to burrow your face onto that beautiful mane of hair more often. 

But you never did see that familiar bike on the pathway again. And you got worried. You were still conflicted over whether to pay a visit to her office or wait for another opportunity. It didn’t feel right for someone new such as you to just go to the head scientist’s office without a purpose involving business. 

* * *

Sliding your tray as you moved onto the next display of food at the self-service station, you slowly reach for the ladle inside the pot of unknown hot soup, not bothering to look at what kind it was. Behind you was that woman with light brown hair and tired eyes. The morning at least seemed tolerable to her today. She was staring intently at the salad bar, as if the tomatoes had done something wrong to her. "Has anyone seen Dr. Octavius lately?" You decided to strike up small talk. 

She snapped out of her daze and looked at you incredulously as you carefully poured the soup into your bowl. "No."

"I used to see her bike to work," you pretended to sound casual, as if you actually saw the woman every morning like it was nothing. "But I haven't seen her in a while." 

"Oh," she stared at your bowl of overflowing with soup, frowning, as the steamy liquid dripping onto your tray. Your eyes widened in realization before quickly putting the ladle back into the pot, sliding to the next food display. "Olivia sometimes doesn't leave the facility." When you didn't reply, expecting her to elaborate further, she continued, "When she finds a breakthrough or is onto something, she could stay in her lab for days. Mr. Fisk provided her with a capsule bed in her office, but God only knows if she actually uses it or doesn't sleep at all."

You gave a subtle nod, satisfied with her explanation. You both moved to the coffee machines. Your eyes skimmed to the long list of different types of coffees, each drink clearly enticing in their own way, some completely new to you. The woman placed her tumbler into a slot, looked down at her hand holding her tray, checking the time as the other pressed a series of buttons with familiar dexterity. 

"I could say that I'm impressed over her energy. I could only get through the day with 4 of these," she gestured towards the machine filling up her container with black coffee, "and an immeasurable amount of spite."

You chuckled, still staring at the menu. "What's _ Dr. Rosalind's QL SpecialTea _?" 

"It's a classic. Made by one of the Lutece twins. Don't bother bringing that outside. It's not allowed."

You pressed the icon of the drink which looked like a grainy image of a bottle with sparkly yellow liquid that seemed to radiate. 

"We drink it before starting on projects that are guaranteed to explode in our faces." You gave her a questioning look before gazing back at the bottle slowly filling up with a glowing substance. "It emanates this kind of radioactive shield that absorbs all sorts of damage done to you," she gestured at the radioactive symbol on top of a lightning bolt plastered on the bottle. "Well, that's how it's supposed to work."

You guessed that having it only available within the facility gave the scientists no other choice but to work on their experiments inside Alchemax. You didn't want to think about what they would do to you, if you brought a bottle home, so instead you asked, "What do you mean?" The substance was close to the brim of the bottle's opening. 

"We tried replicating a copy of the original drink, but couldn't figure out how to perfectly absorb the damage so that the drinker won't be able to feel any pain at all. So, drinking this before experiencing any inflicted damage is similar to wearing a bulletproof vest and getting shot with a rubber bullet." She took her tumbler and started walking away as you grabbed your bottle and struggled to follow her. You decided to sit with her on a table with the same scientists as before, but they didn't notice you, continuing on with their own work. 

"Why not ask the twins to produce more?" You unwrapped your sandwich, crumpling the tissue cover before taking a bite. She looked annoyed by your questioning, so you decided not to press any further after she answers. 

"Mr. Fisk had proposed a personal project for them, promised millions in exchange for them to accept the offer. But they denied." You stared at her, both of you shared a look that said, _ who would want to refuse millions of dollars? _

"They said that they had enough of 'sentimentality disturbing the potentialities of science' before leaving Alchemax. The man was furious and requested to have them hunted down, but they were completely gone," she poked at her salad, clearly not interested in eating it. "They left without a trace. No records, no family, no anything - like they never existed. Nobody knew where they went, but Fisk still kept tabs on them in case they found any new info," she stabbed a fork into her lettuce. 

"Who knows, he probably made that last part up and had them killed." Looking back at you, she asked, "Got any more questions you want to annoy me with?" 

"No…" You continued eating your sandwich, slightly surprised that the scientists didn't seem bothered by the twin’s disappearance. Both of you ate your meals in silence, listening to your colleagues typing and chatting about their discoveries. Did they ever have office gossip here? 

You carefully placed the glowing bottle into your bag before standing up to go back to your cubicle.

Unsure, you looked at her with a shielded expression before asking, 

"Do you, by chance, know if they hand out grease at the cafeteria?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to add a bit of a crossover with the reality-hopping physicists from Bioshock Infinite, the Lutece twins.


	3. Rock-climbing with Darker Intentions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darker intentions.

Turns out, they do use biofuel. 

So, you decided to bring up the proposition to the manager of the nearby McDonald’s. You felt that you still haven’t reached that level of finally being able to ask for equipment to work on your personal side-project. Maybe in the next 6 months? 2 years? It wouldn’t hurt for them to lend a few supplies, especially since your project was barely ¼ the size of the other scientists’ operations. It's been nearly a month now since you've started working at Alchemax. The days have been slow, and you've been trying to catch onto the little things you heard about Olivia around the workroom. A fellow colleague of yours had been kind enough to answer some of your questions. 

You shuffled a stack of papers before heading to the photocopier. "So," you skimmed through the pages, making sure they were in the right order, "how does the whole educational filming work around here? I haven't seen the stuff Dr. Octavius was talking about to her phone."

He didn't look at you as he continued typing on his computer. "They have that _ stuff _ filmed in advance,” he muttered, making a point of sounding annoyed at your choice of words. 

"Oh." 

You didn't ask anything after that. 

* * *

More weeks had passed. 

To your surprise, you were introduced to a military-grade training program. Apparently, once an employee has shown enough promise for the company, they go through an intense exercise regime. You knew there was no backing out when they told you about the self-defense classes. 

_ "The information we hold within this facility is strictly confidential," a woman with blonde hair tightly tied up into a bun, wearing camouflage pants and a black shirt, looked at you and the rest of the trainees with a sharp edge. "So, you all must know how to defend this information, in case the inevitable happens when it falls into the wrong hands." _

The self-defense came on easy to you since you had Taekwondo classes back in elementary. All it took was a bit of muscle memory and the pressure of trying not to get killed since the older scientists didn't hold back whenever it came to the afternoon sparring sessions, their looks betraying them.

What you didn't like the most was the climbing. The facility had a _ rock-climbing _ wall as expected, but you were still surprised at the dedication they put into the employees' bodily kinesthetics. You always had trouble getting to the top. Your hands were slippery despite the chalk powder, and you didn't feel so good whenever you looked down to see your coach yelling at you to not look down. You were slower than the rest and it always infuriated you. Luckily, you had someone with you whenever you froze midway. A man who looked to be in his forties had trouble getting up, claiming that his joints weren't supple as they used to be and it didn't help that he had trouble getting up with his glasses on. He was bald and had a greying goatee. It looked as if he were distant cousins with Vladimir Lenin.

Whenever both of you were the ones left clinging to the wall, you would share a look of _"You're just like me, scared,_ _but desperate to impress these schmucks" _before chuckling nervously as everyone continued on to the next set of the training, leaving you both literally hanging. 

His name was Mark. 

* * *

Basic blocking, dodging, and counter-attacking gradually became more complex. You were first learning how to deflect blows, the next thing you know, you were all having classes about various firearms, which made you realize how far the company would go into not just disarming intruders, but actually having them _ killed. _

It was the expense of just dealing with documents, which probably was still as important as dealing with the researches going around. What mattered was that everything was confidential. 

And Alchemax would do anything to keep it that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still debating on whether I should have longer, but less amount of chapters - or vice-versa. What do you think? I'm leaning more onto the latter.


End file.
